CHICAGO, IL (October 21, 2016)—Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos that Covenant News Service believes may be of interest to others. Each Friday we post five of them. Following is a sample of those submissions—their inclusion does not represent an endorsement by the Covenant of any views expressed.

Finalists for 2016 Wildlife Comedy Photos Announced

Because who doesn’t need some laughter these days? Be sure to check out the competition’s website.

Baby Elephant Rescues Man in River

No, they were not filming the latest version of Tarzan.

From the article: “Darrick Thompson, co-founder of the Save Elephant Foundation, was going for a dip in a river, and Kham Lha, one of the foundation’s rescued baby elephants, was standing on the shore. She mistook him calling out to her from the water as a cry for help and charged into the water to save him by offering her trunk.”

Fitness Trackers Show Male Squirrels Lazier than Females

What’s this—two stories with pictures of squirrels? What are the odds?

In this study scientists placed fitness trackers on arctic ground squirrels and the results seemed to indicate that the females do all the work. What could it mean? Apparently the males are spending hours more outside while the females are underground taking care of babies.

From the article: “But Cory T. Williams, lead researcher behind the study — published last week in Royal Society Open Science — says we should be cautious about imagining the ground squirrels as little bushy-tailed humans. ‘I think sometimes the media likes to give everything this sort of human spin,’ he told The Huffington Post. ‘And I think we have to be careful about doing that because obviously these animal systems are so different from human systems.’ ”

Woodpecker Pecks at Animal Control Officer

Sometimes it’s hard to tell a person from a tree.

From the article: “The Animal Patrol said Waclaw was rescued as a baby in June after he fell out of his nest. The bird was treated at the city’s wildlife rehabilitation center and released back into the wild, but officials said he still makes regular visits to the facility for food.”

Tasmanian Devil Milk Fights Superbugs

The milk from Tasmanian devils contains peptides that could kill MRSA and other superbugs. The marsupials raise their young in relatively unclean environments, so researchers think the milk helps the offspring survive.

From the article: “These appear to be similar to peptides in the milk of other marsupials, which means these animals are worth studying too. ‘Tammar wallabies have eight of these peptides and opossums have 12,’ (researcher Emma Peel) said, adding that studies into koala’s milk had now started.”